The Dragonprince's Heir

by Aaron Pogue

  My hand rested on a wall of mundane masonry. I stepped back a pace and craned my neck, and saw its top six paces up with a walkway for the guards. Beyond this wall were buildings. I fell back another step and saw the soaring towers that held the Halls of Justice. And in the distance, the golden gleam of the palace gates.

  We'd come to Sariano.

  Father was on his knees beside me, head clutched between his hands, and he was screaming. For a moment I forgot the monster driving him. I forgot the pain. All I knew was my father's agony. I went to his side and threw an arm around him. "What's wrong? What happened? Father, what's wrong?"

  He cut short the awful screams, but still he moaned in pain. "The wizards," he gasped at last. "They did this. How did they know? This wasn't here before. How dare they? Pah! I'll show them fire!"

  I looked up at the wall. "They protect the City," I said. "You told them to. They are defending against...against dragons."

  He laughed in scorn. "I'll show them dragon power."

  "No," I said, gripping his arm. "No. You want the people to be safe. You want to save them. The wizards made the City safe. That's all they did."

  "They dared to raise a wall against me!"

  I fell back on my heels, staring open-mouthed. "The FirstKing build this wall."

  He showed his teeth. "The FirstKing raised a wall of stone. The wizards raised a wall of Order."

  "To keep the Chaos out."

  He shook his head. "To keep corruption in. One good, hot fire might have cleaned this place, but the rot still grows inside the walls."

  A new tack struck me then. I needed to get him to the Tower, and I could use his rage to get him there. I hated to think what damage he might do to our own people in his madness, but if Themmichus was there, he might know what to do. He might even have brought Laelia.

  I turned my father to face me and tried not to wince at the madness in his eyes. "Father, we must go back to the Tower."

  "Soon, my child. Soon. As soon as we reclaim what is ours."

  I shook my head. "They've walled you out. You can't get in. But there is rot within your Tower as well."

  He hissed at that and almost seemed to focus on my eyes. "My lair?"

  "Your lair. The king left some men there to protect it. He left a governor to rule in Mother's stead. That is an injustice you could fix."

  Father's eyes narrowed, and for a moment I thought it might have worked. Then he shook his head and grinned. "If I kill the king, his brood will fall apart."

  "No! These are men, not monsters. They don't obey those laws."

  "These men are monsters."

  "But you are trapped outside. Perhaps if you set right your lair—"

  My father shook his head. "I will set right the world."

  "But the wall—"

  He silenced me with a comforting hand on one shoulder. "There are other ways to pass a barricade."

  Then he turned on his heel and strode away, walking north in the darker shadows of the city wall. I chased after him, arguing the whole time, but I could not turn him away. At last we reached a carter's gate, wide and high with two huge doors barred shut and guards watching down from their places on the battlements.

  They might not have seen my father cloaked in shadows, but they spotted me and shouted down, "This gate is closed 'til dawn!"

  'Til dawn, I thought. A dragon's power wanes in sunlight, right? Perhaps by dawn my father could regain control. I turned to him. "It's only a few hours. If we wait—"

  "I've waited long enough."

  "The gate is barred! They will not let us in."

  He showed his teeth. "They're soft. They'll bleed."

  In answer to my father's will, two shards of stone came drifting from the ground, smaller than the ones he'd used to break the dragon, but these shone with sharpened edges and cruel barbs.

  My mind raced, searching for some way to stop a murder here.

  "But...but shouldn't vengeance come by daylight?"

  "Oh, no," he growled, hungry. "It's sweeter if it's unexpected. It's more terrifying in the dark of night."

  "This isn't you," I moaned, more to convince myself than him.

  He sneered. "It should have been. It always should have been. What good is power unspent?" He raised his hand and pointed to the battlements.

  "Guards!" I cried, desperate now. "Is there some other gate?"

  One guard laughed. The other called down, "If you're clean enough, the Ardain gate will let you through."

  "There," I turned to Father. "The Ardain gate. It's fitting in its way."

  "It's several miles, and my feet are sore." He said no more, gave no more warning, just flicked his fingers, and the earthspun weapons flew.

  I swung the sword my father made, and by some miracle I caught the first projectile in the air. I sliced it clean in two, and it dissolved to dust around the cut.

  I shouted, "Down! Get down!" and heard the other shot crash into the wall's stone battlements.

  Then Father struck me. Not with fire or power, but with the flat of his hand. In his rage, he sent me sprawling. As I fell, I thought I saw the gate begin to move. I could not look closer, though, because Father stepped over me with swords in either hand—one blade carved from obsidian and one from fire.

  He towered over me, murder in his eyes, and growled, "Traitor!"

  "No," I said, defiant. "I am faithful to my father's name. I'm faithful to my mother. You're the traitor. You're a murderer and a madman. You're no better than the dragonswarm."

  He laughed. "You little fool. I am the dragonswarm."

  "But you don't have to be! You used that power against them. You fought for men."

  "And men betrayed me. Men are worse than dragons, child. It took me too long to see that."

  I fought to catch my breath. My heart was pounding. "Maybe some men are, but Daven Carrickson wasn't. Isabelle could not have loved a monster."

  "I remember her...." His shadow-dark eyes focused on something far away.

  "She needs you, Father. Not a killer. Not the dragonswarm. She needs you."

  He sighed and met my eyes. Then I heard a heavy thud, his head snapped forward and fell back, and he collapsed.

  Where he had been, a vision out of nightmare stood proud and tall, stark black-and-white by moonlight. The Lord of Tirah. The retired Grand Marshall. Without the eyepatch, one glass eye glinted beneath his shock of wild hair. He wore a nightshirt with a Green Eagle's breastplate buckled hastily over it, and silken slippers in place of the heavy plate boots.

  Arrayed behind him, just now emerging through the gate, was a whole squad of city guards with swords and crossbows at the ready. The Grand Marshall had brought two wizards as well—one tall and skinny, all in black, and the other with the crimson bands of a Justice. They stood a few paces off. They trembled inside their black robes.

  I took some confidence from that. I scrambled to my feet and raised the sword. "What have you done?"

  The Grand Marshall looked down, almost bored, at the monster now unconscious at his feet. "Saved your life, by the sound of things. And earned myself a double duchy, or some such nonsense. Take him to dungeons! See he stays asleep or we're all dead." He looked me up and down and chuckled. "Take the boy, too."

  "I'm not a boy!" I shouted, brandishing the blade.

  The Grand Marshall raised an eyebrow, unconcerned.

  I pressed him back a step. "This is my father! You can't have him!"

  The old warrior rolled the club in his hand, apparently considering my challenge. Then he shrugged and turned away. "All yours, Seriphenes."

  I'd taken half a step after him, but now I spun back to the wizards. Seriphenes?

  The skinny one stepped forward, malice sparkling in his dark eyes. He raised a gnarled hand in admonition. "Drop the toy, child."

  I showed him my teeth. "Come take it from me. You shall not have my father."

  He cackled. "I'm a Master of the Academy. What are you?"

  "I am the Dragonprince's h
eir."

  He sneered at that, and I felt a flash of warmth in the sword's hilt. I looked down to see a white-hot shine upon the blade, coruscating out in waves. He'd tried to scorch my palm and so disarm me, but where the rolling waves of heat touched my flesh, they died away.

  I met the wizard's eyes and grinned. "You will need more than that."

  He shouted rage and slashed his hand toward me. Ropes of air like chains of iron snapped around me, but I flexed against them and they fell apart. I took a careful step over Father's fallen form and raised the glowing blade toward Seriphenes.

  "Antinus, you fool!" he hissed. "Will you do nothing?"

  "I have seen no crime," the Justice said, but I thought I saw the hint of a smile twisting at his lips.

  "We have our orders!" Seriphenes screamed.

  "Indeed, but mine are not the same as yours." The Justice closed his eyes and whispered something more, then he was gone. A dreadful premonition hit me. I turned, and Father's body was gone. The Justice had him now.

  I spun back toward Seriphenes and found a wall of fire rushing at me. I threw one arm up to shield my eyes and braced myself for the impact, but it rolled over me like a gentle breeze. I advanced once more on the wizard. "Where's my father?"

  "Beyond your help!" The skinny little man began to swell, filling out with heavy muscles and rising tall before me. Taller than any man. He towered and bellowed down, "And I will crush you beneath my heel."

  But I never slowed. I focused on a memory of the wizard as he was and threw a punch toward the giant's knee. It broke the old man's nose as well as his illusion.

  He went sprawling in the dirt, and I lowered my sword to rest just above his heart. "Where is my father?"

  Seriphenes was too afraid to answer, but then an edge of steel pressed the soft flesh of my back, just above my kidney. I froze. Behind me, a calm voice answered, "He's safely in a cell, as you should be, my little lord."

  I sagged at the calm voice of Captain Tanner from Tirah. I might have fought for freedom, but Tanner was a good man. I had no wish to kill him, and he was a man prepared to take the fight that far. I'd have to find some other answer.

  He prodded with the edge again, and I moved my sword's point away from the wizard's chest. Then I sprang away and spun, engaged his blade with mine and met his eyes. "I could kill you here," I bluffed.

  He shrugged. "Perhaps. But I've seen you bound in chains before. I think steel would have its way."

  "You've not faced me in combat. I trained at the feet of Caleb Drake. I could gut you."

  "And a right honorable gutting it would be. But then they would finally find the nerve to fire." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder to the squad of city guards now spread in a tight half-circle. I couldn't count all the crossbows trained on me right then.

  I sighed and lowered my weapon.

  He grinned and lowered his. "But if you'll come along quietly, I'll reunite you with your mother and Sir Drake. No guts involved at all."

  "And Father?"

  The captain pursed his lips. "That is a matter far above my rank. Far, far, far above."

  I sought another way, but I found none. Everything I wanted was inside the palace. I sighed. "Very well, Captain Tanner. I entrust myself to your care. I will go with you."

  Seriphenes grumbled in complaint, then disappeared as easily as the Justice had. The captain looked for some objection to our arrangement among the city guards arrayed behind him, but none spoke up. I saw no sign of rank or authority among them. These were the men Seriphenes and the Grand Marshall had managed to rouse in their rush to apprehend my father, and now with their commanders gone, these nameless guards all seemed quite content to yield their responsibility to the outsider.

  Tanner turned back to me, unsurprised. "Let's go. And put that thing away before you get it stolen." He slapped an empty leather scabbard against my chest. It looked remarkably like the one I'd left with all my baggage back in Gath.

  Before I could ask about that he left at a fast walk, and I had to hurry to keep up. We passed through the gate and into a rundown, shady slums. The captain kept to the very center of the street, never slowing and never glancing down the narrow alleys that watched us as we passed.

  Then we turned a corner and the ramshackle buildings were replaced with soaring marble. The rough cobbles with broad, smooth paving stones. The captain slowed at last, the tension left his shoulders, and there across a moonlit courtyard glowed the golden palace gates.

  A contingent of Green Eagles stood on guard outside the gates, but they didn't bar our way as we approached. They didn't take my sword. They barely looked my way—though Captain Tanner received a nod that was very nearly a salute. We found the same treatment at the doors of the palace proper, and just inside, I stopped in my tracks.

  "I've...I've been here," I breathed.

  The captain turned to me, and a little smile touched his lips. "The palace in Tirah is almost a duplicate. The old duke had...ambitions."

  I nodded slowly, staring at the closed doors to the cavernous throne room. King Timmon wouldn't be there now, not in these early hours. Everyone would be asleep...except Seriphenes. Except the Grand Marshall. I shuddered and turned to the captain. "You said you'd take me to my mother."

  "I very nearly have. She keeps an apartment upstairs, but I can't tell you more than that."

  "Captain Tanner, I did not come here to be a prisoner."

  "You're not. The Grand Marshall requested it, but His Majesty refused. You have apartments of your own upstairs. If you will let me show you—"

  "I would prefer to see my mother first."

  The captain only grinned. "We've had this argument before. Last time you won, and it landed you in chains."

  "Very well. Show me to my rooms, and I'll send word to her."

  "Just as I'd recommend. Now follow me."

  He led me to an interior room on the second floor, with just one door and no windows. But it was spacious and well-appointed. A little stand beside the bed held a ceramic basin with steaming water. And spread on the bed was a change of clothes. My own clothes.

  For a long moment I just stood staring. Then I spun on the captain. "How?"

  He smiled, lips tight. "The Grand Marshall's wizard...collected your uncle before coming here. He brought along your bags. Your mother was able to secure them, but only after the wizard had searched them. Thoroughly."

  I ground my teeth in frustration. "He wanted the sword."

  "He did. Everyone is asking after it. You should expect a visit soon. Or...several visits, really. Choose carefully whom you'll surrender it to."

  I raised my brows. "You don't intend to ask it of me? Surely it would earn you some reward."

  "In times like this, I much prefer to be forgotten." He hesitated in the doorway as though he meant to say something more. But then he shook his head and left.

  So. I was not a prisoner in the king's palace. Two soldiers from the king's personal guard were stationed in my room and another handful out in the hall, but it was not so harsh a confinement. If I could visit Mother, even with an escort, or bring her here to me, we could find some way to resolve this matter now. I was sure of it.

  With that plan in mind, I turned a more grateful eye to the clothes spread on the bed. Under the Green Eagles' careful gaze, I washed my face and hands. I traded worn-out travel clothes for a suit more fitting the court. I had barely finished buttoning my coat when someone knocked at the door.

  A Green Eagle twice my age with scars like whiskers looked to me for permission, and I almost laughed. I nodded once, and he opened the door to reveal my knights waiting nervously in the hall.

  It had only been days since I'd seen them last, perhaps a week, but they looked much changed by the interval. Toman was taller and broader, but stern-faced Jen looked...wilted. She met my eyes across the gap, and before any of the guards could object, she threw herself at me.

  She crossed four paces in a heartbeat and wrapped me up in a crushing embrace.
It was as out of place as if Caleb had done it. Or perhaps the Grand Marshall. I gasped as much at the shock as at the tightness of her grip.

  And yet...it was not unpleasant. She was strong and soft and warm. Her short hair tickled soft against my cheek. She smelled of woodsmoke and cinnamon.

  Heat burned in my cheeks while unexpected emotions clamored in my head. I almost didn't hear her breathy whisper in my ear. "I need the sword."

  I blinked at that. "What?"

  Louder, now, she gave a nervous little giggle. "Oh, Taryn! My dear, sweet Taryn! Oh, I was so worried!"

  She sounded like some rattled farm wife, and far too loud at that. Then behind me, Toman carefully cleared his throat and asked the guards, "Come now, gentlemen! Where would he go? Those walls are made of stone!"

  Jen responded with a flurry of little kisses on my face and neck. I was too dazed yet to react, but one of the Green Eagles spat, "Southerners!" with unconcealed contempt. To my surprise, I heard the door behind me open and close. One glance showed me that Jen and I had the room all to ourselves.

  Then Jen was two paces away, acting herself again. The rapid change left me unsteady and I sank back onto the bed for support. Jen raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "Don't get carried away, huh?"

  "Haven's name! What's going on?"

  In answer, she started fumbling at her belt. She turned her back to me and said, "Come over here. Lift up my shirt."

  "Jen!"

  She threw a withering look over her shoulder. "Now is not the time for this! I need your sword."

  As she said it, she grabbed the corner of her shirt and raised its hem enough to show the throat of an empty scabbard she had concealed beneath her clothes.

  "You want the sword?"

  She frowned at me for saying it so loud, and I directed an embarrassed glance at the door. It remained closed.

  Jen came to confront me, hands on her hips and fire in her eyes. A week ago, that stance might have left me quaking, but after that greeting at the door, after the flurry of little kisses, I saw more than the fearsome guard in her.